Using Myst to engage children and develop creative writing skills.

We have been working with Tim Rylands (http://www.timrylands.com/blog/about/) to explore the potenital of using computer games to engage and inspire students to write. Tim began using computer games in his lessons in a bid to improve children's literacy and communication skills. He travels around the world to give presentations and model lessons. We managed to secure a booking with Tim in Enfield. We invited Tim to deliver a training session to Teachers over two days. We worked with Alison Martin to organise the sessions. The training involved teachers from Enfield Primary schools attending Galliard Primary to watch Tim model a session with year 1, 3 and 5.

Tim modelled lessons which involved using a computer game called Myst to develop creative writing skills. The purpose was to encourage creative writing, inspiring children to explore vocabulary, Metaphors and Similes in a fun and exciting way. The following day the teachers came to the CLC to explore the pedagogy behind what they had seen the day before at Galliard.

The CLC is supporting this project by loaning Ipod touches to the schools to explore Myst for creative writing. Teachers have been asked to select 6 pupils in their schools to track their progress. We will be publishing the findings to this exciting project some watch this space.